Bicycles are commonly transported on the back, top or front of a motor vehicle, motor home, house trailer, or the like. They are normally carried in an upright position on a bracket attached to the front or back of the vehicle or on rails attached to the top of the vehicle. Various types of clamps, straps or cords are used to secure the bike to the bracket or rail. These transporting methods have been used for many years and do an effective job in transporting bicycles, but they do have their limitations.
One of the problems of transporting bicycles on an automobile is the possibility of damaging the vehicle or the bicycles if the bicycles are dropped, fall over, or otherwise strike the body of the vehicle, causing dents or scratches. Another problem is the very fact that the bicycles are directly attached to the vehicle. It may be desirable to separate the bicycles from the vehicle in order to use the vehicle without the bicycles attached, while at the same time maintaining the bicycles in a secured position for storage purposes. Also, many people are uncomfortable driving an automobile with bicycles on the roof or hanging from the front or rear of the vehicle. Still further, these conventional transporting methods are limited in the number of bicycles that can be transported at one time. In addition, lifting bicycles onto an automobile, especially onto the roof, is difficult and awkward.
Insofar as is known, trailers especially adapted for transporting bicycles have not been developed. Bicycles may of course be carried lying down on many types of trailers, but such a method is of little practical use because of the obvious damage to the bicycle or bicycles. Also, trailers are known for carrying motorcycles, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,781,030, but transporting a bicycle involves problems different from those encountered in transporting a motorcycle, particularly regarding the relative weight and fragility of a bicycle compared to a motorcycle.